Last Updated on December 5, 2025
Venison Carpaccio
I’ve been messing around with mushrooms! Apart from four jars of pickled mushrooms, I have made a porcini marinade and a rather delicious balsamic mushroom salad. And, since I had a small piece of venison fillet, I thought I’d try a venison carpaccio to go with the salad. I could just as easily have used beef fillet – this just needs a very tender cut of meat to work well.
Here’s the result – a stunning starter or light lunch for two people – venison carpaccio with balsamic mushrooms.
Now, I’d love to claim I went foraging for the mushrooms, but I didn’t. I bought some of them at a local farmer’s market and the rest from Waitrose. Since chanterelles and fresh porcini are very expensive in this country, I added a mix of shiitake and portobellino mushrooms to make the mixture go a little further. You could make this with any mixture of mushrooms you fancy – even with basic button mushrooms – the dish is full of flavour and doesn’t really need the posh ones!
So, here’s how to make a Venison Carpaccio
Venison Carpaccio
Ingredients
- 50 g venison fillet
- 100 g mixed mushrooms mine were porcini, chanterelle, shitake and portabellino
- 2 teaspoons good balsamic vinegar
- 4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons finely chopped shallot
- 1 tablespoon cooking quality olive oil
- A couple of sprigs fresh thyme
- Rocket or other green leaves to serve
Instructions
- Put the venison fillet in the freezer and leave until it is slightly ‘stiff’ (mine took about an hour). Remove from the freezer and slice as finely as possible, then take each slice and beat out under clingfilm so that you can just about see through the slices. Lay the slices neatly on a serving plate, season with pepper and cover with clingfilm before putting in the fridge
- Heat the cooking oil in a large skillet and add the shallot. Cook until it is just caramelising at the edges – that should take about 15 minutes on a low heat.
- Clean and trim the mushrooms and slice any larger ones.
Now add the mushrooms and fry on a medium to high heat for about 8 minutes till the mushrooms are cooked through. Make sure you don’t stew the mushrooms but cook them on a high enough temperature to fry. - Mix the balsamic, virgin olive oil and thyme in a jug and season with salt and pepper to taste. The mixture should taste like a robust salad dressing.
- Put the mushrooms into a bowl while still warm and add the dressing. Then leave to cool down for an hour or so.
- Serve by dressing the serving plate with whatever green leaves you have and putting a mound of mushroom salad in the centre of the venison.
- Provide a little more balsamic and oil dressing for guests to add to the carpaccio to their own taste. You could also add shaved parmesan or pecorino cheese if you think you need more flavour. It depends a bit on the quality of your mushrooms.
This recipe would work just as well with beef fillet, but I’m not convinced you could use many other types of meat. It is low-calorie and very healthy, despite being delicious and rather posh-looking. It would also make a good addition to an antipasti spread or a cold meat platter.
Want to try this one for yourself? Why not pin this post for later
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